As many my age, I was brought up admiring Jim Henson’s creations as a child. I clearly remember enjoying the madness of “The Muppet Show”; it was completely different from the other show for kids at the time, and I also became attached to some of the characters. The permanently complaining Statler and Waldorf and Fozzie Bear had plenty of awful jokes and an unmistakable desire for attention. The term ‘celebrity crush’ was first being used for me when Kermit the Frog and Linda Ronstadt were flirting on the stage of “The Muppet Show”. Miss Piggy did not like it, of course.
I was taken to see it by my parents together with my friends in summer 1979 when “The Muppet Movie” has been released. We had to sit at the front because I was told that there is a Kermit riding a bicycle scene.
With such basic knowledge of Muppet physics, I wanted to get a closer look and see if I could work out how they pulled it off. (I didn’t, but that was soon forgotten when, at dinner that night, my dad decided at least he said it was a decision taken by accident to order frog’s legs). And, of course, when it was reported that Henson passed away due to a bacterial infection on May 16, 1990, at the age of 53, it felt like a part of my childhood memories also passed away as well.
For someone of my generation, understanding the life and work of Henson and watching his documentaries with an objective eye is never possible. For example, Howard’s Jim Henson: Idea Man. For many aspects, the film is annoying it is very traditional in its form, does not provide different insights into Henson and his works, and in the effort to achieve a mostly upbeat approach, many affair is omitted. Anyway, the sight of so many archival materials, the major part of the picture, including the clips from Henson’s projects and its making for me, was like tasting Proust’s cakes made by his grandmama.
If you admire the work done by Henson and his impact on the world, I am sure that there are many bits from the history which are of more interest to you and not the big picture. The doc traces his life right from the childhood and early desires to become a puppeteer influenced solely by wishes to appear on screen to the role of a central artist in creating television classic “Sesame Street.” Few years later he interpreted the wideness of his art in the form of a brand new variety television project which included Kermit the Frog, a favorite character from the Sesame Street or along with new Muppet troupe most importantly Miss Piggy.
Even though none of the networks wanted the show, he received a phone call from someone in London who wanted to create it, and the show went on to become one of the most watched programs in the world prior to its cancellation in 1981. From there his focus turned to the projects with the native Muppets (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan) and new works which included The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, which were panned at first but later earned devoted audiences.
It is completely pleasurable to see different clips or even Eisen’s coworkers Puppeteer Frank Oz, or the teenage Jennifer Connelly who got the role in ‘Labyrinth’ notice how provocative Jim Henson: Idea Man’ feels more like a hagiography the further one reads. The past few years saw Howard establishing himself as a documentary maker, producing films on various topics, starting from Jay Z (‘Made in America’) to The Beatles (‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week The Touring Yeas’), Luciano Pavarotti (‘Pavarotti’), or the Wildfire hit community in ‘Rebuilding Paradise’. It seems, he knows his audience well this book’s central character is Filmmaker by Profession James Henson. He appears to make every possible effort to not add any feature that could detract from the optimistic nature of the movie. One minute of the screen time for example, is spend on Henson’s short involvement with ‘Saturday Night live’, a disastrous combination of comedic techniques and arts that never matured.
Similarly, while Howard also attempts to get some deep understanding of the G rated even Muppets, and “The Dark Crystal”, or even such fantasy film as “Labyrinth”, they barely do any mention of “The Great Muppet Caper”, which is Henson’s first film definitely and “The Muppets Take Manhattan” for any reason at all.
Finally, Howard reveals how the Walt Disney Studios were interested in taking over Henson’s company shortly before its founders death. But he makes no mention of the litigation between the two after the deal was not concluded, and Disney chose to act as if they were the legitimate owners.
When every other important name in the pop culture world seems to receive an extensive multi part documentary, it becomes obvious that a two hour timeline would only lead to excising huge amounts of information that loyal fans, searching for details of the man and his work, are sure to get annoyed over.
Although “Jim Henson: Idea Man” is unlikely to challenge existing paradigms in Henselian studies or documentary practice as a whole, it should, nonetheless, be helpful for the younger audiences interested in the life of the creator of so many of their favorite childhood characters. For their parents, I suspect, it is an immediate nostalgia trip. Many of them, I think, will cry a few times during the footage of Henson’s funeral. So it goes today with Henson’s legacy: me, I’ve seen much not to hate, but on the contrary would like to have seen more. Damn. As one Muppet character has put it quite rightly: “Meep!”
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